LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER.

The article features sportswriter Mark Kram. It describes palindromic Mark as loving the unusual, hating the spotlights, and alert to the oddities of obsession, his style's key element. It mentions some of his favorite subjects including a man from Baltimore who calls himself James IV whose obsession is hangmen's nooses, letter-to-the-editor writer Quackenbush who wrote about milk bottles replaced with cardboard cartons, and Ernie Banks who stood out by his very conformity. Mark prefers travelling by train, does not drive, and is traumatized by flying.